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Q There are so many versions of Eyes Wide Shut, censored, uncensored, different durations, Director’s Cut, Studio Cut, Theatrical Release USA, Theatrical Release Europe — ugh! Out of all of these, which Blu-ray version is considered, in 2023, to be closest to what Kubrick intended? Given what we know today, which release would you recommend as producing the most Kubrick-authentic viewing experience? And is there an easy way to differentiate the different versions? — Dan Labriola

A Thank you for taking the time to write in. Stanley Kubrick’s final film, the erotic mystery/drama Eyes Wide Shut has been hotly debated from a variety of perspectives since even before its debut. Most notable of the surrounding controversies was the studio-mandated addition of computer-generated figures used to obscure the graphic sexuality during the orgy scene. This decision was made in order to avoid a problematic NC-17 rating here in the United States, which would have potentially excluded the movie from distribution to some theaters and later to some video stores. One other change that we recently found out about was the removal of the recitation of a passage from the holy Hindu book the Bhagavad Gita during the same sequence, although to our knowledge this has never appeared in any home video version.

While this CGI modification did not affect the actual length of the movie, DVDs released in the U.K. were noted with a runtime of only 153 minutes, owing solely to the different PAL video frame rate of 25fps — versus the 24fps rate at which the film was shot — and not due to any removal of content. The full and correct runtime of the film is 159 minutes.

The uncensored cut would clearly be the version that Mr. Kubrick intended to be seen, since that’s how he shot it and the above-mentioned changes were made after his untimely death, months before the premiere. Your best bet to secure the uncut, uncompromised, uncensored version of Eyes Wide Shut would be to look for the NC-17 rating or simply “Unrated” or “Not Rated.” We would avoid any marketing speak such as “Director’s Cut” and just go with that.

However, we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out that next year will mark the 25th anniversary of the film’s release and, considering Warner’s admirable push of late to release 4K Ultra HD discs of their more prestigious catalog titles, there’s a better-than-average chance that we will see a best-ever disc in 2024. Who knows? We might even get seamless branching between the R-rated and unrated cuts.

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